Jamil Dakwar Profile picture
Personal views & account. Director, @ACLU Human Rights Program. Adjunct professor @nyuniversity @Hunter_College. Formerly with @HRW @AdalahCenter
AlejandraCovarrubias Profile picture 1 subscribed
Sep 2, 2022 4 tweets 2 min read
This is a global embarrassment.

“It is not Russia that threatens the United States so much as Mississippi…[I]nternal injustice done to one’s brothers is far more dangerous than the aggression of strangers from abroad.” — W.E.B. DuBois (1947) United States, under both Democratic and Republican administrations, has consistently objected to recognizing the right to safe drinking water and sanitation as basic human right that creates obligations to work towards achieving universal access to water and sanitation for all.
Jun 15, 2022 15 tweets 3 min read
New report by @ACLU and the Int’l Human Rights Clinic at the @UChicagoLaw investigates the use of prison labor throughout state and federal prisons in the United States and finds widespread coercion and exploitation of incarcerated workers nationwide. THREAD Image The report calls for far-reaching reforms to ensure prison labor is truly voluntary and that incarcerated workers are paid fairly, properly trained and able to gain transferable skills. 2/
Sep 27, 2020 11 tweets 3 min read
My first experience doing legal research for a court case was while I was a law student in Israel. I was helping my brother-in-law who was among the lawyers to petition Israel’s Supreme Court in December 1992 about Rabin’s decision to deport 415 Palestinians to south Lebanon. 1/ Rabin decided to retaliate against Hamas for the kidnapping and killing of 6 Israeli soldiers by instituting an overnight mass deportation of 415 Palestinians to a no-man's land in south Lebanon. The mass deportation was gaged at the order of Israel’s military censor. 2/
Sep 22, 2020 4 tweets 1 min read
Trump Administration’s report to the UN Human Rights Council was posted online. This report is one of the worst attempts to cover up U.S. human rights violations since the Civil Rights Movement. 1/ ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/UP… Image The report is full of misinformation, misrepresentations and even outright lies.

The report dismisses the well-documented systemic racism in American policing and makes no mention of the U.S. government's violent crackdown on protesters, ... 2/
Sep 13, 2020 10 tweets 2 min read
Israel's normalization deals with the UAE and Bahrain will not bring peace to the Middle East. If anything, they will only embolden oppressive regimes and encourage abuses of international law. 1/ Israel and UAE/Bahrain were never in a state of war to begin with- both countries are not even officially declared enemy states under Israeli law. 2/
Aug 26, 2020 4 tweets 2 min read
There is nothing that annoys the Trump administration more than asserting reproductive rights, including abortion rights, are human rights. Trump's State Department is up in arms about a letter by U.N. human rights experts raising very legitimate and serious concerns that some U.S. states limited access to abortions during the COVID-19 pandemic. reuters.com/article/us-usa… @StephNebehay
Aug 11, 2020 4 tweets 2 min read
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights urges the United States to implement structural reform to combat historical racial discrimination and eradicate institutional racism against Black people. oas.org/en/iachr/media… The Commission recommends “to make available basic services and affirmative actions that guarantee the economic, social, cultural and environmental rights of African-American people; as well as adopt special measures for effective access to justice for this ethnic-racial group.”
Aug 4, 2020 8 tweets 4 min read
BREAKING: 143 families of victims of police violence and over 360 civil society groups call on the High Commissioner to ensure effective implementation of the @UN_HRC resolution on police violence and structural racism. aclu.org/letter/letter-… 1/ Families of victims of police violence, many of them members of @FightingMothers, asked @mbachelet to ensure a transparent and inclusive process for producing the report to the @UN_HRC with maximum meaningful participation and engagement from directly impacted communities. 2/
Jun 16, 2020 5 tweets 4 min read
Update: 54 African countries introduced draft resolution at the UN Human Rights Council mandating the establishment of international independent investigation into police killings and repression of protests. This is huge deal! #BlackLivesMattters #HRC43 The draft resolution mandates the creation of an independent international commission of inquiry to investigate systemic racism and abuses against Black people in the United States and other parts of the world. Image
Jun 14, 2020 9 tweets 2 min read
"United States may use the language of human rights law to condemn official abuses against minorities worldwide, or violence against protesters in Venezuela, Hong Kong, Iran, and elsewhere, but it bristles when those same norms are deployed against it." foreignpolicy.com/2020/06/10/ame… An excellent must-read piece by @davidakaye. I agree with his recommendations, many of which have been made to the Obama administration when the Democrats controlled both the House and the Senate. And yet the Obama White House decided not to spend political capital on it.
Jun 12, 2020 8 tweets 4 min read
UN Anti-Discrimination Committee issued a very strong statement expressing grave concern over the “horrific killing of George Floyd” and the “recurrence of killings of unarmed African Americans by police officers and individuals over the years.” ohchr.org/Documents/HRBo… ImageImageImage The Committee said it is disturbed “by the excessive use of force by law enforcement officials against peaceful protesters across the country calling for ending racial discrimination and ensuring justice regarding the death of George Floyd”
Jun 10, 2020 16 tweets 4 min read
Live: George Floyd’s brother testifying before Congress.
#BlakeLivesMatter Image "The world knows him as George, but I called him Perry. Yesterday, we laid him to rest. It was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do. I’m the big brother now. So it was my job to comfort our brothers and sisters, Perry’s kids, and everyone who loved him."
Jun 8, 2020 4 tweets 2 min read
In an unprecedented move, the families of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Philando Castile and Michael Brown, supported by over 600 groups are demanding @UN_HRC to convene a special session to address police violence and repression of protests in the U.S. aclu.org/press-releases…. ImageImageImage We are calling on the Human Rights Council to mandate an independent inquiry into the extrajudicial killings of unarmed Black men and women as well as the violent law enforcement responses to protests, including the unlawful attacks against journalists.
Jun 6, 2020 4 tweets 1 min read
“We feel that the problem, number one, of the black man in America is beyond America’s ability to solve. It’s a human problem, not an American problem or a Negro problem.” “And as a human problem or a world problem, we feel that it should be taken out of the jurisdiction of the United States government and the United States courts and taken into the United Nations ….
Jun 5, 2020 4 tweets 1 min read
28 independent UN human rights experts including the Chair of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination condemn modern-day racial terror lynchings in the United States and call for systemic reform and justice. Image 99 years after the Tulsa massacre, involving “the massive loss of life, destruction of property and loss of wealth on ‘Black Wall Street’, African Americans continue to experience racial terror in state-sponsored and privately organised violence”
May 21, 2020 8 tweets 3 min read
NEW: 87 civil society groups petition @UNHumanRights and @UN_HRC, seeking to supplement their UPR submissions to include critical information on governments responses to COVID-19 and their severe and far-reaching impact on human rights. aclu.org/letter/civil-s… Image “The upcoming UPR Working Group session will have profound significance as the first session to examine Member States’ human rights records in the wake of COVID-19.”
May 9, 2020 6 tweets 3 min read
.@ACLU was one of 5 NGOs that spoke during the virtual UN meeting and called attention to the rights of people who are living in poverty, and of people experiencing homelessness. Read our coalition statement: aclu.org/letter/civil-s… 1/ ACLU intervention also supported proposals made by other civil society groups and delegations emphasizing that COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated pre-existing inequalities especially pre-existing racial disparities rooted in institutional racism. 2/
May 4, 2020 11 tweets 2 min read
THREAD

A few thoughts on Stacy Abrams’ op-ed in @ForeignAffairs which is clearly intended to share her foreign policy outlook as she vies for Joe Biden’s VP candidate pick. foreignaffairs.com/articles/unite… 1/ I find nothing original or strikingly fresh in her analysis. Abrams is suggesting we return to the mantra of leading by the power of example, the cornerstone of the Obama/Biden administration’s foreign policy, without noting any constructive criticism or lessons learned. 2/
Apr 17, 2020 4 tweets 3 min read
Over 40 UN Missions participated in virtual civil society briefing on human rights in the United States and COVID-19. ACLU is proud to have played a major role in organizing this important briefing. upr2020.org/post/april-15-… @USHRN @UPRinfo

cc: @usmissiongeneva @StateDRL @DRL_AS Just In: We submitted detailed recommendations on how to protect incarcerated people (in jails, prisons and immigration detention facilities) from COVID-19. aclu.org/other/summary-…
Apr 11, 2020 10 tweets 2 min read
Coronavirus doesn’t discriminate but it disproportionately impact people of color especially Black people living in low income and poor communities.

ACLU’s @ReNikaMoore explains why Black people are contracting and dying from the virus at far higher rates aclu.org/news/racial-ju… “To provide meaningful protection and support for all members of the community, a COVID-19 response must address the pervasive racial injustices at the federal, state, and local levels. In the short term, we start by taking several key steps:
Apr 6, 2020 5 tweets 2 min read
An FBI investigation of ISM activists in 2004-6 raises serious constitutional concerns as it appears to have targeted legitimate activism in support of Palestinian human rights according to new FOIA docs. Here are some points not included in the story. 1/ theintercept.com/2020/04/05/isr… The FBI's investigation seemingly coincided with the Israeli government’s campaign to de-legitimize ISM and bar its activists especially after the IDF’s unlawful killing of Rachel Corrie (March 2003) and British citizen Tom Hurndall’s (April 2003). 2/ hrw.org/reports/2005/i…